OUT NEXT FRIDAY, APRIL 13
ON SEARCH AND DESTROY/ SPINEFARM RECORDS
 

Toronto, ON – April 4, 2018 – Formed in 1976 at the forefront of the fledgling London punk scene, The Damned kick-started the birth of punk as we know it, leaving an influential legacy for generations to come. Their musical journey has seen the quintet intent on moving forward, courageously exploring sights and sounds way beyond their brash wide-eyed beginnings - and they’re back to do it all over again.

Some ten years since the release of their last studio recordings, The Damned return with a new album, Evil Spirits, to be released next week, on Friday, April 13^th via Search And Destroy/Spinefarm Records. Their first album in ten years, it is preceded by latest single,  Standing On The Edge Of Tomorrow, available to stream and purchase everywhere now.

The single is “an optimistic song even though it is about a dark subject, in a world obsessed by ‘self’,” explains legendary frontman, Dave Vanian, who also directed the video for the track.  “This is a cry for humanity to recognize its humanity, before it’s too late. There is a strong influence of Joe Meek here: ‘Telstar’ was a glorious song about the opportunities of the future. I’d like to think that ‘SOTEOT’ reflects a similar sentiment.”

To accompany this up-to-the-minute garage psychedelia that gallops like Scott Walker’s The Seventh Seal, amid ominous ‘dies irae’ chorale and mucho post-millennial frustration, the video for Standing On The Edge of Tomorrow depicts a vision of the future from a band whose colourful, anarchic, ever-changing vision has been propelled by an indefatigable creative motor. Quite simply, The Damned have always pushed their sound and message forwards from inception back in 1976 and have no plans to slow down in 2018.

“The exploration and colonization of other worlds is something we will face in the not so distant future,” adds Vanian on his own work directing the video. “My fervent hope is that we do not take our fears and prejudices with us and repeat the mistakes we have made on our home planet.”

Propelled by an enormously successful Pledge funding campaign, the band headed to Atomic Sound Studios in Brooklyn in early October 2017 and began a frantic, high-energy, nine day burst of creativity with famed producer, Tony Visconti, whose list of past working-relationships reads like a who’s who of popular music. (David Bowie, T Rex, Morrissey, U2, The Stranglers, Iggy Pop and Thin Lizzy to name but a few!) Reunited with former bassist, Paul Gray (who played on the classic Black Album and Strawberries in the early 80s), the renewed line up took full advantage of the studio’s classic Neve recording desk, valve gear and vintage equipment to form the new record.

“We deliberately recorded the album retro style,” explains guitarist, Captain Sensible. “The same way our debut album was made, basically. There’s something wonderful about the seventies sounds; glam, rock and punk records, they all sound so great and Tony specialises in beautifully crafted old school production. He had us all playing live, bashing it out in the same room with a focus on getting the initial band version of each song as close as possible to the finished thing.”

Standing On The Edge Of Tomorrow, a song penned by frontman, Dave Vanian, packs a punch and carries a melody that is impossibly hard to shift once heard.

“It’s supposed to be very optimistic, even though it’s about a dark subject,” states Vanian. “As an artist, you can’t help but reflect the times, because that’s what art does. I think we always do it, but in a slightly different way. So a song like ‘Standing…’ may seem quite joyous and uplifting musically, but some of the lyrics might be about quite dark things. That’s what I’d like to think this album is – an uplifting album, not a moaning old album – not ‘this is terrible, and that’s terrible’, and then not offering any answers. It’s more a case of, ‘If we get it together, maybe we could change things a bit’.”

Across the album’s ten tracks, The Damned get to the root of their collective song-writing, and Evil Spirits is an album which doesn’t shrink from opposing the dastardly political forces at work in 2018, and indeed triumphs in seeking higher ground, to progress beyond them.

“This album is filled with a lot of influences from our earlier, pre-’70s tastes – the ’60s stuff. ‘Standing…’ is really linked into Joe Meek, ‘Telstar’, and that kind of stuff,” continues Vanian. At first, I’d said in an interview before we started writing this stuff that the album would be psychedelic, and maybe a trip through the historical side of The Damned, as in what we like. It didn’t happen in the way I thought it would, but it still does the same thing. It still has all that in there, but it’s not as obvious as it could’ve been, which is good. It’s not like pastiches of songs you remember, it’s more a case of, what was great about something you loved as a kid has somehow influenced a guitar sound, or the way the drums are. You might not even know it if you’re one of our younger fans, but if you’re a little older, you’ll hear it, which is kinda cool.”

And of the Evil Spirits that the album intends to dispel?

“I started buying records in 1967, the Summer of Love,” adds Captain Sensible. “There were so many positive changes happening through the 60s and 70s; civil rights, feminism, the anti-nuclear demos in particular. Whatever happened to all that? Where are today’s anti-war marches? Whatever happened to the beautiful hippy dream of worldwide peace and love?”

Evil Spirits will be available on digital download via Spotify and iTunes, on CD and 180g vinyl available to pre-order here.

Evil Spirits Track Listing:
1. Standing On The Edge Of Tomorrow
2. Devil In Disguise
3. We’re So Nice
4. Look Left
5. Evil Spirits
6. Shadow Evocation
7. Sonar Deceit
8. Procrastination
9. Daily Liar
10. I Don’t Care

The Damned are:
David Vanian - Vocals
Captain Sensible - Guitar
Monty Oxy Moron - Keyboard
Pinch - Drums
Paul Gray – Bass

DOWNLOAD – Hi Res Press Photo | DOWNLOAD – Hi Res Album Artwork

www.officialdamned.com